What was the most profitable crypto track in the first half of 2024?

Original Title: "What Was the Most Profitable Cryptocurrency Track in the First Half of 2024?"

Original Source: Viee, Biteye

The first half of this year is almost over. Since BTC broke through the previous all-time high of the bull market and rose to 70,000, there has been no more exciting brilliance.

In recent months, the market has been fluctuating back and forth, and the flag of making money that was set at the beginning of the year is also slightly shaking. Anyway, the main uptrend of the bull market has not arrived yet. There will still be opportunities everywhere; don't be impatient.

At this juncture, it is very suitable for reflection and review. This article is a statistical comparison of the returns of different cryptocurrency tracks since 2024. It is no longer the era of easy gains. Which track is the most profitable? After reading this article, you will know.

01 How Did Different Cryptocurrency Tracks Perform in terms of YTD Returns from the Beginning of the Year?

Ranked by the average YTD (January 1, 2024, to June 21, 2024) price return of the top 10 tokens in each track, the data source is CoinGecko. The performance of cryptocurrency tracks in the first half of 2024 is shown in the following chart.

Meme Coins Become the Most Profitable Track

In recent months, "value investing is in vain, embracing MEME memes in the palace" has gradually become one of the "coin speculation scriptures" of this round of the bull market.

According to statistics, undoubtedly, Meme coins have been the most profitable track in 2024 so far, with the highest average return rate reaching 2405.1%. As of June 19, among the top 10 largest Meme coins by market capitalization, three were tokens newly launched around March-April: Brett (BRETT), BOOK OF MEME (BOME), and DOG•GO•TO•THE•MOON (DOG).

Among them, BRETT had the highest return rate, with a price increase of 14353.54% from its issuance price; dogwifhat (WIF) has risen by 933.93% YTD in 2024, sparking the Meme coin frenzy at that time.

It is worth noting that the profit potential of Meme coins is 8.6 times that of the second-largest profit track RWA and 542.5 times that of the least profitable DeFi track.

(Note: The actual rank of the Layer 2 track with a negative return rate is not compared in terms of multiples.)

The Second Largest Profitable Track RWA Has Seen a 213.5% Return Since 2024

The concept of RWA (Real World Assets) has been widely discussed in recent months, with major players entering this track, including BlackRock Funds.

As a result, RWA briefly became the most profitable track in February, ranking first in terms of returns, but was later surpassed by Meme Coins and AI tracks. It regained its lead over the AI narrative at the end of March and also performed well in early June.

Among the top-market-cap RWA tokens, MANTRA (OM) and Ondo (ONDO) saw the largest gains, up 1123.8% and 451.12% YTD, respectively, while XDC Network (XDC) performed the worst, down 44.38%. Apart from some established DeFi projects, RWA projects are generally in the early stages and worth keeping an eye on.

The AI Track Follows Closely Behind with a 71.6% Return

As early as the end of 2023, the AI track had frequently appeared in the annual outlook of major investment institutions. As Messari stated in its 2024 investment forecast, AI has become the darling of the tech sector. Indeed, the AI track has seen an average return of 71.6% so far in 2024, ranking third.

Arkham (ARKM) saw the highest increase at 215.50%. Next is AIOZ Network (AIOZ) with a 192.19% rise. Tokens like Render (RNDR) and Fetch.ai (FET), which garnered high attention in the first half of the year, saw returns of 57.47% and 116.00%, respectively, performing well.

DePIN and Layer1 Achieve Steady Growth

DePIN's return was mostly negative in the first half of the first quarter but has turned around since March, achieving a return of 58.7% to date.

Among the high-market-cap DePIN tokens, JasmyCoin (JASMY) performed the best with a 323.42% increase, followed by Arweave (AR) and Livepeer (LPT) with YTD gains of 174.07% and 116.06%, respectively.

In contrast, Helium (HNT) underperformed, being the only high-market-cap DePIN token with a decrease of over 50%, showing a return of -50.94%.

DePIN is also one of the tracks that this bull market is betting on. If the total market cap of DeFi grows 10x and DePIN's total market cap reaches half of DeFi's, then DePIN's total market cap will reach $500 billion, with at least 20x growth potential.

The Layer 1 (L1) track has seen a return rate of 43.0% from 2024 to present. Despite Solana (SOL) receiving a lot of attention as a public chain with many high-potential memes, its year-to-date (YTD) increase is 22.91%, a significant drop from the mid-March 85.05% return rate.

The best-performing large-cap L1 cryptocurrencies are actually Toncoin (TON) and Binance Coin (BNB), with increases of 204.72% and 86.10%, respectively.

In contrast, Bitcoin (BTC) has a 45.06% increase from the beginning of the year after hitting a new high, while Ethereum (ETH), despite the expected rise through ETF applications, has a YTD increase of only 49.65%, on par with BTC.

GameFi, DeFi, and Layer 2 Lagging Behind

The GameFi track has a return rate of 19.1%, belonging to tracks with relatively little market rotation from the beginning of the year. Despite a significant amount of overall financing, it has not yet produced any blockbuster hits.

The best-performing large-cap GameFi tokens are FLOKI with an increase of 362.79%, Ronin (RON) with 21.16%, and Echelon Prime (PRIME) with 5.27% YTD. Other large-cap token returns are negative, including GALA at -13.43% and Immutable (IMX) at -32.02%.

The DeFi track performed relatively well in the first quarter, receiving a boost from the end of February Uniswap (UNI) fee switch proposal, but it slightly lacked momentum entering the second quarter, with a year-to-date return rate dropping to 3.4%. Maker (MKR) is a large-cap DeFi token with a high return rate of 49.88% YTD.

The Layer 2 (L2) track is the worst-performing, with a return rate of -40.59%, almost halving. Among large-cap L2 tokens, AEVO (AEVO) and Starknet (STRK) performed the worst with return rates of -85.40% and -63.16%, respectively.

Mainstream Ethereum L2 performance is also lackluster: Optimism (OP) has a return rate of -54.64%, Arbitrum (ARB) has -53.71%. Of particular note is Mantle (MNT), which has outperformed with a YTD return rate of 26.09%.

02 Calculation Method

This study, based on CoinGecko data, examined the performance of the most popular cryptocurrency tracks from January 1, 2024, to June 21, comparing the average daily price return of the top 10 market cap tokens in each track to the price at the beginning of the quarter. For tokens launched during the quarter, their first-day price data was used for comparison.

The representative tokens in each track (top 10 market cap tokens) were selected based on their market cap ranking as of the last day of the quarter.

To better serve the purpose of this study, tracks specific to a certain chain, tracks with a small number of high market cap tokens, or tracks highly overlapping with other tracks were excluded.

This study is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice. When investing in any cryptocurrency or financial asset, be sure to conduct your own research and act prudently.

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